The Ice Prince
by LunaSeasMoonChild
Summary: An ice statue dwells in the heart of the 10th Division barracks. They say it is not an ice sculpture, but rather, a frozen shinigami once considered a genius of his time. They say he used to be the captain of the 10th Division.


_**Author's note:**_ I haven't been up to date with Bleach, whether it's the anime, or the manga. I also have no idea how shinigami bury their dead. But I had this fic idea for HitsuHina, and I just had to write it down. Didn't really edit this, so... X_x

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In the 10th Division barracks, a lone room, devoid of any ornaments or other furniture, is occupied by a single ice statue. In a room where the chill as cold as the dark never dissipates and the ice as hard as diamond never melts. The only occupant of the freezer room is the statue of a boy, wearing shinigami clothing, sitting on a chair, his zanpakutou by his side.

They say it is not a statue but an actual boy, frozen. They say it is not an ice sculpture in honor of the youngest ever to become a captain of the thirteen squads, but it is the actual captain itself. Well, the shinigami attire corroborates that fact, although the back of his white haori cannot be seen to actually verify that he _was_ a captain, frozen as he is to his seat.

The truth behind the sculpture is a myth for young shinigami. For those who have ben around for hundreds of years, they refuse to talk of it. They keep mum, not because they have a shameful secret to hide, but because it is painful for them to remember a comrade who has fallen.

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_Hinamori let out a weak grunt as Hitsugaya immediately pulled out his zanpakutou from her chest. He caught her before she fell, cradling her in his arms._

_"Momo… I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry…" Hitsugaya's voice cracked as he slowly made his way to a building rooftop, ice falling all around them like tears. Once his feet landed on solid, he gently laid Hinamori down on the ground. Using one arm to prop her up, he pulled out his other arm from under her knees and pressed it on the chest wound profusely bleeding._

_"Momo, Momo," Desperation and fear and pain mixed in Hitsugaya's voice as he held Hinamori to his chest. "Momo, can you hear me? You're going to be alright, we'll get you help, oh God, I'm so sorry, Momo, I'm so sorry… I didn't know…"_

_Barely breathing, Hinamori managed to find her voice. "Shiro… W…hy?" And she succumbed to unconsciousness, which was a mercy as it helped her to escape the pain._

_As for Hitsugaya, he felt as if he was now the one who had been impaled by a zanpakutou through his chest. He roared in anger, unable to contain the burst of emotion. He charged blindly towards Aizen, who had not only managed to victimize Hinamori once more, but had gotten her own friend to hurt her unknowingly. But his reckless attack had been no good, because one stroke of Aizen's hand, and Hitsugaya had fallen, followed by Soifon, Kyouraku, and Shinji. _

_HItsugaya lay on the ground, pain ebbing through him, brought about by the slash of Aizen's zanpakutou. But Hitsugaya did not mind it. He deserved it. He had to pay for what he did to Hinamori._

_'Momo… Momo…' Hitsugaya stared unblinking above him as he slowly succumbed to darkness. 'I'm so sorry, I'm so… sorry… I didn't mean to hurt you, I couldn't ever because I... I-I love you…'_

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_Ichigo had defeated Aizen, who was now in custody and remained imprisoned in Soul Society._

_All of the comrades who had fallen, now considered heroes, during the last battle with Aizen were having a burial ceremony._

_All eyes were on the child captain as he walked towards the front where the coffin was. Everyone shushed, looking on in curiosity and sympathy at what Hitsugaya would do._

_Hitsugaya's face was blank as he approached the open coffin where Hinamori lay. Hinamori was dressed in her shinigami robes, hands laid upon her stomach. Instead of her trademark bun, her hair was braided to the side. _

_Everyone waited, watching carefully. No one knew what was going to happen to the young captain. Everyone was expecting a breakdown, if it hadn't happened already. _

_But even with all the attention on him, Hitsugaya was numb to it. All he could see was Hinamori, his childhood friend, his most beloved, his most precious person, resting so peacefully in front of him. Her eyes would never open again, and it was all because of his blade._

_Hitsugaya looked on, unmoving. And then, he held up his hand and laid it on Hinamori's cheek. But even with that slight gesture, Hitsugaya's face was as blank as it had been after learning the death of his longtime friend. His aquamarine eyes seemed like it had lost its color, and had become black with emptiness._

_No one disrupted Hitsugaya as he paid his respects. But when his hand lowered to Hinamori's chest, people grew uncomfortable, but did not approach him. But when he slipped his hand inside the robe's collar, several people stood up._

_"Hitsugaya-taichou!" A tinge of admonishing was in Byakuya's tone as he addressed the 10th Division captain. "Act appropriately!"_

_HItsugaya either did not hear his fellow captain or ignored him. People grew tense, wondering if he had gone mad enough that he would try to grope a corpse in public, but they were mistaken. Hitsugaya had no lascivious intention. He just parted the robe to reveal the scar on Hinamori's chest, and he did not go any further. He stared at the stitched wound that had cost her life, the hole in her chest that his zanpakutou had gone through. Unable to look at it any longer, Hitsugaya covered it with his hand. _

_Ukitake and Kyouraku decided that the young captain had had enough. Perhaps it would be best if he was led away since this did not seem to be helping the grieving young boy. The two captains stood and walked towards the casket, daring to approach when no one did not._

_"Hitsugaya-taichou," Ukitake started as he laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. Hitsugaya did not move to acknowledge the presence of the two captains on each of his side. He did not protest or put up a fight when Kyouraku gently took hold of his wrist to pull away Hitsugaya's hand upon Hinamori's chest. They led him away without encountering any resistance from the boy._

_But when Kyouraku pulled away Hitsugaya's hand, a beautiful ice flower bloomed over Hinamori's chest wound, covering it completely._

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_No one knew what to make of the tenth division's captain's absence for the burial rites. No one had seen Hitsugaya since Ukitake and Kyouraku led him away and left him in his own quarters. _

_Everyone expected Hitsugaya to come say his last goodbye to his dearest friend. But he didn't make himself known. If he had come, he hid himself well, physically and spiritually. Hinamori's epitaph had been placed, but still… Hitsugaya was nowhere to be seen._

_Matsumoto decided that she should check up on her captain, knowing just how devastated he was. Hinamori had died by his zanpakutou. He had delivered the killing blow. He hadn't meant to, but Matsumoto knew that if it had been her in HItsugaya's place, she would still blame herself despite being duped by Aizen._

_As she got closer to the captain's quarters, she started to get an odd, ominous feeling. Something wasn't right; the hair on her nape tingled. The air somehow felt colder than the typical weather._

_Matsumoto rapped on the door, calling out her captain's name, beckoning him to come out._

_No response._

_Matsumoto was not a patient person, so she decided to get to the heart of the matter, despite how painful it would be. "Hitsugaya-taichou! You're not the only one who lost someone they loved dearly! Please…" Her eyes filled with tears. "Visit Hinamori's grave so you can say goodbye. She deserves that from you."_

_Still, no response. Matsumoto could not sense anything in the room, not a sound, not a movement… nothing… not even… the presence of a reiatsu._

_Eyes widening in alarm, Matsumoto damned protocol and opened the door of the room without invitation. What she saw shocked her, rendering her unable to take a step into the room. She stood outside the threshold of the bedroom, but she could see her breaths become white puffs of mist._

_Every surface and item within the room was coated in ice. The room was sparse in furniture; only a table and a high-backed chair could be seen inside. Seated on the chair was Hitsugaya Toushiro, 10th division captain, also encased in ice._

_In disbelief, Matsumoto took a step back as she raised a hand over her mouth, before taking off to alert the captains of the situation, hoping that they had a solution._

_Later on, the captains of the Gotei 13 concluded that they could do nothing about the situation. Unohana was put in charge of Hitsugaya's condition, but she found that no fire, not even that incurred by Yamamoto's zanpakutou, could melt the young genius's ice. When all solutions thought of failed, everyone decided to put the matter to rest, leaving the former 10th division's captain in his current state. Since he was unable to carry out his position for the time being, they appointed a new captain._

_"There must be another way, Unohana-taichou!" Matsumoto pleaded to the benevolent woman. "Don't leave him like this, I beg you."_

_"We have done all we can," Unohana started, "And we can only do so much. Grief, guilt, pain, loss, sorrow… those cannot be penetrated, will never disappear, thus, why his ice will never dissipate." Unohana sighed. "The ice can only be melted from within, and we cannot reach him. Not anymore. Not from outside."_

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"You two there! What do you think you're doing?"

The two young shinigami bolted upright at the feminine voice calling out to them. They knew they were in trouble with their superior.

"Matsumoto-fukutaichou!" The two bowed in reverence to the vice-captain of their squad.

Matsumoto was frowning, her sky blue eyes tinged with disapproval and slight anger. She approached the two unranked squad members that had been about to sneak into the ice room.

The Ice Room, as it goes by, or sometimes known as Freezer, is off-limits. Any shinigami entering the 10th division only has one glimpse of the room and the mysterious ice statue in it, and that is when they have their initial tour of the barracks. And that is mainly to warn all newcomers that the room should not be entered, not by anyone, not for any reason.

"You two know this place is off-limits, right?"

"H-hai!" The two newbies nervously reply.

"I will let this go for now, but don't even try to sneak in this room ever again. If I catch you again, I will have you two transferred. Is that clear?"

"Hai, Matsumoto-fukutaichou!" is the simultaneous reply of the two culprits.

"Now go and do something worthwhile, like _training_, for instance."

The two bow once again before scampering off to do as their vice-captain bid them to do before she came up with a more severe punishment instead of letting them off the hook.

Matsumoto looked towards the room, whose door had been left open. With sad eyes, she looked upon her former captain. Going against the rule that she herself had imposed years and years ago, Matsumoto entered the ice cavern of a room and stopped in front of Hitsugaya.

He was always considered ahead of his peers, mature beyond his years. But in the end, his heart was still that of a child's even though his intellect and talent was greater than many.

"Taichou…" Matsumoto whispered, her breath misty white from the cold. "When will you have the strength to face a world without the one you love the most?" Her eyes stung with tears. "When will you forgive yourself for Hinamori's death?"

Remembering Hinamori, the sweet, sweet girl who was also dear to her heart, her tragic death, and the fate that Hitsugaya had chosen for himself, the guilt too much to bear on his shoulders. They were not only her comrades-in-arms, they had been her friends, and in part, her family. It had been ages, but the memory of losing them still caused her pain up to this day.

And with Hinamori's passing, Hitsugaya went with her. Everyone would say, he was still alive somewhere within the ice he'd trapped himself in, even though his reiatsu couldn't be detected. If he were dead, then what power was behind the ice that no heat or fire could break or melt?

But Matsumoto knew better. Hitsugaya Toushiro died of a broken heart.

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_**A/n: **_ I remembered Nataku from Gensoumaden Saiyuki, who is featured as a little boy sitting on a throne, unmoving like a statue, which is where the idea that Hitsugaya had frozen himself came from. ^_^


End file.
